Lewis County Sirens.com

Thurston County sheriff's deputies gather outside the vacant house where Amanda Bassell was found hiding.

Updated at 8:22 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

ROCHESTER – Deputies this evening arrested the 23-year-old woman wanted for allegedly stabbing her mother early this morning in Rochester.

Amanda Lee Bassell was hiding in an abandoned house on Guava Street and 193rd Avenue Southwest.

She was barefoot, soaking wet and exhausted when she was found, according to Thurston County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Greg Elwin.

She was taken away to be booked for attempted first-degree murder.

At least five deputies and a K-9 searched the neighborhood around the home at the 18700 block of Elderberry Street Southwest, where Bassell had been staying with her parents.

They tracked her all day.

They thought she was on foot, possibly hunkered down in the brush somewhere or hiding in an abandoned building, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

“She’s been making phone calls trying to get help, and nobody wants to help her,” sheriff’s Lt. Greg Elwin said shortly after 6 p.m.

They found indications someone had crawled under a fence, which led to a vacant house just a few blocks away, a place known for attracting transients, Elwin said.

A K-9 deputy looked inside, saw wet foot prints, and Bassell ran out from the basement, he said. Two detectives caught her running across a field just after 7 p.m.

Bassell allegedly took a kitchen knife to her sleeping mother’s neck just before 4:30 a.m. today, stabbing her numerous times. The mother awoke and fended off the attack. Bassell fled before deputies arrived, according to the sheriff’s office.

Bassell was released from prison just before Mother’s Day, where she spent almost four years, much of it in solitary confinement, according to her cousin.

“She’s kinda messed up in the head, she’s paranoid,” her cousin Krystin Martinez said.

Martinez, who also lives in Rochester, said Bassell came to a barbecue at her house the day she got out and seemed alright, except for one odd thing she said.

“She told me pregnant with three babies from Jesus and she’s named all of them,” Martinez said. “That’s the only thing I noticed that wasn’t normal.”

Martinez said her cousin had married an individual associated with the LVL gang. The sheriff’s office earlier had said Bassell had strong ties to Lewis County and was believed to have gang affiliations.

Ruth Daarud, 42, was taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital where she underwent surgery. She was moved to another hospital today, because her daughter called her, according to Martinez.

Martinez said her aunt came out of surgery this afternoon and was stable, but might have some continuing problems.

“She’s going to make it, but it’s worse than they thought,” Martinez said.

Elwin said Bassell was incarcerated for an eluding case out of Lewis County, and assaulted a guard while she was in prison.

Thurston County Sheriff's Office Deputy Rod Ditrich and his K-9 partner Rex leave a brushy area off Elderberry Street Southwest in Rochester.

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Sheriff's deputies were called to Amanda Lee Bassell's parent's home early this morning.

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For this morning’s news story and background, scroll down or click here

Updated at 10:50 a.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Authorities are searching for a 23-year-old woman, suspected of stabbing her sleeping mother in Rochester this morning.

Amanda Lee Bassell

The 42-year-old victim has been taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia and is in stable condition, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies were called around 4:30 a.m. to the 18700 block of Elderberry Street Southwest, according to the sheriff’s office.

They are looking for the daughter, Amanda Lee Bassell, described as 5-feet 4-inches tall and weighing about 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Bassell is wanted for attempted murder.

Sheriff’s Lt. Greg Elwin says Bassell has strong ties to Lewis County and is believed to have gang affiliations.

Elwin said the victim awoke to being assaulted and was stabbed in and around her neck numerous times.

She was able to fend off her attacker and flee the bedroom, only to collapse in another part of the house, according to Elwin. The father was asleep in another room and awoke to his wife screaming for help, he said.

He said a smaller-type kitchen knife was used.

They have no idea what prompted it, he said.

“The mother was completely asleep and woke to being attacked,” Elwin said. “There was no precipitating events. It’s a complete mystery at this point.”

The suspect fled the scene before law enforcement arrived, according to Elwin.

Bassell was recently released from prison, for cases involving eluding in Lewis County and assaulting a guard while incarcerated, according to Elwin. She was then just recently in the Lewis County Jail and released, he said.

She had been staying with her parents the past week or so, he said.

The mother is currently undergoing surgery, he said.

The sheriff’s office says Bassell, who also goes by the last name Daarud, should be considered “assaultive” and not approached if spotted. They ask that anyone who knows her whereabouts to call 911 or the sheriff’s office at 360-704-2740.

Christopher Puentes-Garay pictured in a recent photo at school. / Courtesy photo

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Maria Puentes is hoping to take her son home.

Home to Los Angeles to be buried.

Christopher Puentes-Garay, a 16-year-old Rochester High School student, died unexpectedly while swimming Tuesday afternoon in the Chehalis River with one of his brothers, his cousin and another friend.

The single mother of four moved her family to Rochester just last summer, according to her sister Tracy Yanez.

“She moved her boys out of Los Angeles for a safer place to live,” Yanez said.

Puentes-Garay vanished under the water shortly after he jumped in to catch up to his cousin and her friend, according to authorities.

It happened on the 12,600 block of Independence Road, about two miles west of the bridge at Michigan Hill Road near Rochester.

Searchers found his body the following day, at the bottom of the river less than 50 yards from where he was last seen.

Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said an autopsy today confirmed he drowned, but he didn’t have a certain explanation as to why.

It could have been the current, or it could have been the water was very cold, according to Warnock.

“He was in apparent good health,” Warnock said. “For he, his friends and his family, it was just a normal day.”

Up until he drowned.

One thing that can happen, is when a person’s body temperature is warm and they jump into cold water, their diaphragm can constrict and make it difficult to breathe, according to the coroner.

Puentes-Garay was the oldest of four children, a boy who was the “man of the house” and would make cakes for his mother, Yanez said.

He will also leave behind five cousins mourning in Rochester.

“My 3-year-old today, said “Mom, now Chris can sit on the moon’,” Yanez said. “She understands.”

Students at Rochester High School are making T-shirts in his memory.

Maria Puentes’ managers have coordinated fundraising so she can take her son back to Highland Park, where his grandmother is, according to Yanez.

Donations can be made at Twin Star Credit Union, where a special account has been set up, she said.

A car wash is set for tomorrow at Bailey’s IGA at 10333 U.S. Highway 12 in Rochester, to start at about 10 a.m.

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For background, read “Search resumes for teen lost in Chehalis River” from Wednesday May 16, 2012, here